New Foods for Old? The Diet of South Asians in the UK

Abstract

South Asians in Britain suffer from a higher rate of coronary heart disease than the indigenous population and it has been suggested that elevated levels of di etary fat play an important role in this disease pattern. Ahmed (1999) has ar gued that these fat levels are primarily due to the traditional South Asian methods of cooking, while McKeigue and Chaturvedi (1996) have additionally implicated Western fast food. A survey was conducted of 149 South Asians residing in and around London to ascertain their dietary beliefs and practices in relation to the percentage of energy derived from dietary fat. Subjects were drawn from two groups in order to investigate the effects of age and acculturation: employees at ICI (mean age 39 years) and students at London University (mean age 21 years). The data showed that both vegetarians/nonvegetarians and younger/older South Asians were consuming far too much fat in their diet. Western fast foods (i.e., potato chips) played a part but the primary factors were curried meat for older nonvegetarians, and butter for everyone else. Despite this high fat content and their awareness of the general relationship between fat and coronary heart dis ease, the subjects erroneously believed that they had a healthy diet. Butter was consumed on toast, sandwiches and potatoes, and the responses of the younger participants revealed that they considered this high fibre food healthy and over looked the amount of fat content in butter. Results are discussed in relation to their implication for health education and concepts of a multicultural diet.